


Singularity

by tsohg a ma I (NinjaGirl2211)



Series: Gravity, Attraction, and Other Fundamental Laws of the Universe That Broke When We Met [1]
Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: 707 | Choi Luciel Is The Hacker Dark Knight Of Justice, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Anonymous Hackers - Freeform, Awkward Crush, Bad Decisions, CIA, Choi Saeran Is Flipping The Fuck Out, Choi Saeran Needs a Hug, Choi Saeran has Anxiety, Code Ninjas, Cognitive Dissonance, Depressed Kim Yoosung, Diamonds Are Dull Compared To This Man's Beauty, Dissociation, Echo Girl | Choi Kyungju Pokes Sleeping Dragons With Sharp Sticks, Eventual Romance, F/M, Gen, Gender Roles What Are These Things You Speak Of, Han Jumin Has Feelings, Han Jumin Is Concerned, He Just Doesn't Know It Yet, Humor, Kang Jaehee (Mystic Messenger) is Done, Kang Jaehee Wishes He Would Stop, Multi, Multiple Universes Colliding, OC Has Backstory, POV Original Female Character, Parallel Universes, Pining, Please Don't Hate Me, Poor Kim Yoosung, Protective Zen | Ryu Hyun, Rating May Change, Romance, Sorry Not Sorry, Spies & Secret Agents, The Dark Side of the Force, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, V | Kim Jihyun Deserves Better, V | Kim Jihyun Is Not A Happy Camper, We Need To Find You Some Friends, Zen | Ryu Hyun Is A Girl's Best Friend, bad language, no MC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:22:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24679189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NinjaGirl2211/pseuds/tsohg%20a%20ma%20I
Summary: “I…can’t really explain it. We’re still shaky on the details.” She rubbed a hand down her face. “For simplicity’s sake, let’s just say we were pen pals—”If pen pals could send messages across the barriers of reality“—who didn’t actually think the other existed until today. Before that, I thought everything about you guys, and Ray, was fictional.” She rolled her eyes. “And Ray apparently thought I was achat bothe created.”Zen blinked at her in shock.“That’s insane.”“You want to hear insane, ask me about this again when I’m ready to tell you the unabridged version.” She chuckled, her voice a little off. “You know, there’s this phrase we have in America; you might’ve heard it before…”She shook her head with a shaky smile and looked out the window.“The truth is stranger than fiction,” she said to her reflection.
Relationships: 707 | Choi Luciel/Original Female Character(s), Choi Saeran/Original Female Character(s), It's a surprise!, Rika/V | Kim Jihyun, Undisclosed Relationship(s), V | Kim Jihyun/Original Female Character(s), Zen | Ryu Hyun/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Gravity, Attraction, and Other Fundamental Laws of the Universe That Broke When We Met [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824109
Comments: 11
Kudos: 21





	1. Stranger Than Fiction

**June 11th 10:58AM**

Liv let out a shuddery breath and brushed imaginary dust off her shoulder, wishing she could just as easily do the same to her nerves. As she clung to her bucking confidence with all four figurative limbs and marched towards the director, she questioned, not for the first time, how—and, more importantly, _why_ —she had ever gotten into this business to begin with. She wasn’t cut out for this.

 _Acting_ had never been part of the plan.

Mr. Director had his back turned to her when her phone pinged and Liv jumped at the opportunity to procrastinate with the same enthusiasm of a fat kid when the ice cream truck comes rolling down the road. Pivoting in another direction without breaking her stride, Liv took up an inconspicuous spot where the makeup artists set up shop and opened up her phone. 

She was supposed to be meeting her costar today, but she had been anticipating the moment with a special kind of dread. Liv had never taken on such an…intimate role before. Sure, she’d starred in a couple low budget Sundance Film Festival hits, and she’d done a pretty good job. She’d even done some modest roles in some not-so-obscure works as well, but she never imagined her dabbling in the film industry would take off the way it did. It had started off with modeling for some extra cash, and somehow escalated from there. So, she was frankly shocked out of her pants when a Korean casting agent offered her a role, and after reading the script, she almost turned it down…

But the sad matter of fact was that she _needed_ the money.

Everything came down to the bottom line, now-a-days…

She sighed as she flipped through her notifications, desperate to stomp down her nerves and ever-present misgivings by any means at her disposal. And right now, it looked like that was Mystic Messenger.

A classmate had gotten her hooked on the otome game a while ago, and she still found it impressive how immersive it was. The story itself wasn’t something she ever thought she’d be interested in—a big mystery with hackers, a secret cult, and a fundraising organization—high fantasy and science fiction were more Liv’s speed. But she kept hearing the name Mystic Messenger pop up in various circles of her acquaintances, and she was always the curious sort… The reason she tended to stay away from the mystery genre was because she also tended to get a little…obsessive whenever there was something she didn’t know, not to mention _impatient_ when the answer toyed with her, so enticingly out of reach—like so many other things in her life. That’s why she preferred fantasy. 

After all, anything was possible in a fairytale world…

She hummed along mindlessly to the jaunty theme song, tapping out the beat on her phone screen as she waited for the app to load. She’d grown even more interested in the game when she started learning Korean for her role. It was slow going at first, but after transitioning to her temporary lodgings in Seoul, as she expected, the learning process sped up exponentially. Total immersion in a foreign culture was an extremely powerful way to learn a new language. Sure, it was a little stressful, and there were some pitfalls, and faux pas, but Liv wouldn’t have it any other way. She insisted on being spoken to in Korean, and in just a few months, she had already gotten to the point of understanding the gist of what everyone was saying to her. The speaking part was harder, of course, but everyone on the set had been extremely kind and understanding, so it was coming along well. And the written language was around twenty times easier than Japanese, so getting her lines down wasn’t a problem. She just needed some help with her pronunciation.

For that, she prescribed herself a more than healthy dose of Korean dramas to listen for the nuances in speech. In addition to that, she found the phone conversations in Mystic Messenger to be particularly helpful in learning that as well. She even found herself pausing the calls at certain points and formulating cheeky responses to the various members of the RFA, or even imagining entire conversations in her head. It was a little silly, but she figured that all actors developed certain eccentric rituals at some point.

As a writer, she called it her ‘process.’

She wondered if actors had a special name for it, and if she could even call her silly habits a true ‘process.’

Liv had never had formal training in the theatrical arts, or much of anything practical or normal, to be honest. When she was interviewed, everyone always seemed so shocked to find that any meager amount of skill she had was largely self-taught. And when they chalked it up to natural talent, she put a swift end to that idea. Every day of her life forced Liv to contend with the fact that the only ‘natural talent’ she had to speak of was a penchant for particularly vivid daydreams. But she made do with that; come hell or high water, she was determined to turn those dreams into reality.

Liv _earned_ her skills with painstaking practice and hard work, just like anyone else.

But no matter how much she practiced and how much praise and support she got from fans—actual _fans_ —she couldn’t help but feel alone and out of place in this strange new world.

After all, acting had never been part of the plan.

She frowned down at her phone, checking her connection. Strong and steady…how strange. The app was sure taking its sweet time to load. She tried to swipe out of it so she could relaunch, but she froze when her screen flashed at her. Then, everything went black. Liv blinked, dumbfounded, and clicked the home button frantically. Nothing.

“ _What the fuck_?” she said in English, shaking her head. “ _Did it just die_?”

And then her phone blinked back on.

“ _What—_ ” Wide, green orbs fixed on her screen, compiled code of the same color raced on a black background and reflected eerily in the shine of her eyes. It reminded her starkly of something out of the Matrix. “ _Is this…part of the game_?”

The phone felt hot in her hand, vibrating slightly, and it emitted a strange whirring noise she’d never heard it make before. She was about five seconds from flinging it away—rumors of exploding phones not lost on her—but before she could take action, a familiar voice shocked her into dropping the device at her feet.

“Ah! Here she is! Our lady of the hour!” Seeing her jump, Mr. Director let out a sheepish laugh. “Oh, so sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you, Ms. Holland. Are you alright?”

“Oh, um…” She struggled to find the right words, but it was hard to form proper sentences when the man standing right next to the director could’ve been a real life counterpart of Hyun Ryu-call-me-ZEN from Mystic Messenger. And it just got worse when he smiled at her.

“Here, I’ll get that for you.” He knelt in front of her and picked up her phone, turning it over and checking for cracks. “Phew—looks like it’s not broken.” He laughed. “Is this an iPhone?”

“Is that funny?” Liv wondered, feeling oddly self-conscious about it. She knew the brand of one’s phone often said a lot about their personality, (and their wallet), but Liv hadn’t exactly chosen hers; it was a hand-me-down. 

Liv took what she could get.

“No, I’ve just never seen one before.” He laughed again.

“Really?” Liv raised her brows at him. “That’s surprising. I hear a lot of people don’t like iPhones, but I’ve never had any trouble with it…until now, anyway. It’s acting all…” She thought for a moment. “‘Finicky’? That’s the correct expression, right?”

“Yes.” He chuckled at her, still holding her rose-gold phone. “Your Korean is impressive for a beginner. I think it was really brave of you to take on this role.”

“Oh, er, thank you, but…” Liv felt her cheeks flush. “It really doesn’t have anything to do with bravery.” 

He looked like he was about to say something when Mr. Director declared, “This is good! You’re already talking like friends! Chemistry is so important between co-stars!”

“Oh!” Liv blinked at the obnoxiously pretty man in front of her with alarm. “Then, you are…”

“Hyun Ryu. Call me Zen.” He flashed a blinding grin at her.

Liv could’ve fainted dead right there.

Her first instinct was to check for hidden cameras and call it a joke. Surely some of the crew had noticed her fixation with Mystic Messenger and decided to play a prank on her. It was inspired, she thought—or it would be, if not for the perfect authenticity in ‘Zen’s’ face. Liv might be comparatively new to the acting scene, but she _knew_ when someone was acting.

This _wasn’t_ acting.

 _Act normal_ , she told herself, _just act normal_. 

So, with mechanical precision she forced herself to reach out her hand and recite her typical mixed Korean/English greeting that everyone seemed to find so cute. 

“Olivia Holland. Twenty six years old. _Nice to meet you_. Call me Liv.”

He shook her hand with a laugh. “I look forward to working with you, Liv, and getting to know you more. Though…I failed my English classes at school, so I hope you can bear with me.”

“Actually, I prefer that you speak in Korean,” she said, still on autopilot, in an odd state of numb. She kept staring at ‘Zen’s’ face, searching desperately for flaws or any sign of insincerity. She found none. “It helps me learn.”

“Yes!” Mr. Director said, patting her shoulder with a fatherly smile. “Our Ms. Holland is very diligent! It’s amazing how far she’s come in just a few months!”

“It’s really nothing special…” she denied, looking away and toward the floor, wanting nothing more at this point than to sink into it and reemerge in a world that made sense. “One of my majors is East Asian Languages, so…”

“Oh, you’re a college student?”

“Yes.” She nodded, then shook her head. “Or I was, until I ran into some financial issues last semester. I’m lucky Mr. Director paid to fly me out here. Most of my paycheck for this film is going towards my education; if there’s anything left over after living expenses, that means I can eat.” She gave a deprecative chuckle at the alarmed look in his peculiar reddish eyes. “I’ve honestly been looking into transferring to a university here in Korea since it’s so much cheaper…”

And other reasons besides, but she wasn’t sharing those with someone _who was a_ _fictional character just five minutes ago_.

“Really?” He sounded shocked. “I didn’t know that. What do they charge in America?”

“Oh, just your self-respect, and then your arms, your legs, your immortal soul…” Liv said darkly. “I could go on, but we’d be here all day.”

For a second, Zen didn’t look like he knew whether she was joking or not, but Mr. Director had no hesitation in laughing heartily at Liv’s peculiar sense of humor; he was used to it by now.

“I for one am proud to play a part in paving the way for your future, Ms. Holland. I have a feeling it’s going to be very bright indeed!” the jovial man said, grin stretched almost too wide. “I’ll leave the two of you to get acquainted. Let’s work hard today too!”

And with that, he was off towards the caterer’s booth, chattering to an aide with a clipboard.

Without the perpetually cheerful man to function as a buffer, the two were left standing there awkwardly until Zen laughed, releasing a bit of the tension.

“Can you believe he’s worked with Chris Nolan? It’s exciting, isn’t it?”

“Oh, er, yes…” Liv said, forcing a smile, even if she felt like she was acting out one of her daydreams. “I love Chris Nolan films. It’ll be good if this one has a similar vibe to it, even though it’s more of a romance than a thriller…” She cleared her throat and looked away again. “I’m…looking forward to working with you too.”

She was having trouble looking at his face for too long. He was incredibly attractive in a completely foreign, untouchable way. He had to have some form of albinism, she thought, to have such unique coloring in his eyes, his skin, and his hair—a color Liv could only achieve with a steady regimen of peroxide. It was almost ridiculous how good looking he was, and that by itself wouldn’t have been so bad if he wasn’t _Zen_. That’s what made Liv want to bolt right out of the room. She wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing. She knew she should never have walked through the doors of that modeling agency. The world was broken, and this was all _their_ _fault_ , somehow—she was sure of it.

Or maybe she was just going insane. Either one.

“Have you ever played a part like this before?” Zen asked her, his voice softer than before. When Liv met his eyes, she saw sympathy in them, likely misinterpreting her reticence as simple shyness.

“Is it that obvious?”

“Not at all,” he said, in a hurry to reassure her. “It’s just that when I heard I was going to be co-starring with you, I ran some google searches…”

“Oh.” Liv missed the days when she didn’t have her own Wikipedia page. “So, I guess that answered your questions.”

“Not all of them, but I’ve read good things about you,” he said, offering her another carelessly handsome smile. “You have a reputation for being diligent, kind, and especially for keeping a cool head under pressure.”

“I have a _reputation_ …?” This was news to Liv.

He laughed that all-too-familiar laugh again—the intimate one that made you feel like you were part of an inside joke, the one that sounded like he was trying to smother it, only to fail in the end.

“Sorry, sorry…” he said, recovering and smiling at her with that devastating grin. “It’s just, I understand what you’re going through.”

Liv found that very hard to believe.

Still, she asked, “You do?”

“My career is just starting to take off too—it’s crazy, isn’t it?” He laughed again, the feeling of deja vu making Liv’s stomach lurch like it did when she missed a step on the staircase. “I’m suddenly getting fan mail every day, and people stop to take pictures of me on the streets. It’s even caused traffic accidents before. I don’t know how I should feel about it… but with a face like this—” here he flashed her another rakish grin “—who can blame them?”

“You’re right,” she said. “That _does_ sound crazy.”

If Liv’s laughter sounded slightly cracked, Zen was kind enough not to notice. Or perhaps he was just too busy admiring his reflection in the screen of her phone—which he was still holding…

“Why am I still holding this?” he said as if reading her thoughts, laughing, and he handed it back to her. “You should think about getting a case for it, or else it might break the next time you—”

Just as the phone touched her fingers, the screen began to flash violently, and the whirring noise was back louder than ever. It landed face down on the floor when she dropped it this time, and she winced when she heard the screen crack. She continued to grimace as she bent to pick it up, turning it over and expecting the worst, only to find a new level of ‘worse’ staring back at her.

“ _Seven hells, how is this my life_?” she breathed.

Shining through the spiderweb crack that was her screen, the elegant brown logo of the RFA was damningly clear. A few seconds later, the welcome screen transitioned to an overly familiar chatroom. The messages were coming through too fast for Liv to make sense of them, and in Hangul besides, she had no chance of deciphering any of it.

“What the—” Zen stared at the screen in utter shock. “Is that—Liv, how did you get our app on your phone?!”

“I don’t know, Idon’tknow,” She shook her head, close to tears and utterly _done_ with this situation. She was praying it was all just a strange horrible dream and she wanted it to end. Now. She thrust the phone at Zen. “Can you make it stop? Can you fix it? Please?”

Zen opened his mouth to respond but Liv’s phone interrupted him with its completely obnoxious ringtone and she almost dropped it again.

She was _mortified_ , but the look on Zen’s face was worse.

“Is that… _Nyan Cat_?”

“It was better than the Imperial March,” she explained.

That one made her jump every time, though Nyan Cat wasn’t much better.

It was her brother’s idea.

Zen visibly shuddered. “We’re going to have a _talk_ about that. Later. For now…” They looked at the ID on the phone. “Who is ‘Unknown’?”

Eyes wide, Liv could only shake her head.

For a moment, they just stood there, listening to it ring, and then silence. A moment later, Liv felt all her muscles tense up as Nyan Cat started up again.

For some reason, it sounded oddly sinister.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Zen said.

Liv could only nod in agreement.

“I don’t know why this is happening.” She felt her chin wobbling and the heat gathering behind her eyes as the stress and fear caught up to her. “Is this a bad dream?”

When the ringtone stopped and started again, the dread that was pooling in her gut surged as a feeling of helplessness sunk over her like a shroud.

“I…don’t know what’s going on either.” Zen seemed loathe to admit it, and he frowned down at her phone before looking at her with a new sort of determination. “But we’re going to figure it out together, okay? I have friends who know how to handle these things. Will you trust me?”

Liv gave him an unsure nod, though oddly enough, she _did_ find his words reassuring. Maybe this was a dream. Maybe it wasn’t. But in either case, trusting Zen couldn’t be a bad thing, could it? He was a good guy, she knew, from playing his route—though she’d only been through it once, and she never unlocked the after ending. (Liv, frugal and never one for microtransactions, only paid for hourglasses to unlock the other stories). She remembered identifying with a lot of the issues Zen had with his parents, even if they weren’t the same as hers. She identified with most of the RFA members in some small ways—perhaps that was the reason the game was so popular. 

“I’m just going let Mr. Director know there’s an emergency, and give my friends in the RFA a call, okay? They’re good people.” He ducked his head to catch her eyes, and gifted her with a reassuring smile. “We’ll get this figured out, I promise.”

“Okay, I…” Liv swallowed as her phone started ringing that horrible ringtone again. “I’ll trust you, Zen.”

“Thanks!” 

He smiled at her, and another wave of deja vu hit her like a mactruck. And with that, he was off to talk to the director, leaving Liv with only the offensive company of Nyan Cat.

Eventually, the dread and uncertainty became too much and she hit the answer button.

“Finally!” A sharp, irritated voice spoke as soon as she put the phone to her ear. “Who the hell are you?!”

Liv’s eyes widened and she couldn’t help but blurt back, “That’s what I should be asking! Why do you keep calling me? Do you have any idea how rude that is?”

“Rude?” He sounded slightly unhinged when he laughed. And like most people’s laughs, like their smiles, Liv had memorized this one by heart. “Hah! Rude is not picking up when I call you! Who the hell do you think you are? Huh? Stealing my software, I’ll show you—”

“ _Ray_?”

“Wha—how do you know that name?!” _And why not?_ Liv mused. With all the rest of the crazy shit being hurled her way, she suspected she should’ve seen this one coming. “I’ll only ask one more time, and then I won’t be so nice—WHO ARE YOU?!”

“Look, my name is Liv, and I _didn’t_ steal anything. I don’t have that skill,” she tried to reason, though without much hope. She’d only played most of the way through Saeran’s route; she lost heart towards the end, finding herself uncomfortably reminded about a lot of personal failings until she finally called it quits. Still, she knew enough about Saeran to understand he wasn’t the sort to listen to reason. 

So maybe he’d listen to something crazy. 

“I was just playing a game!”

“Game? Hah! You think this is a _game_?! You airhead, you really—” He broke off suddenly, leaving Liv in an unnerving silence. His voice was strange when he asked next, “...W-what did you say your name was, again?”

A hesitant pause followed, but then Liv reluctantly recited, “Olivia Holland. Twenty six years old. _Nice to meet you_.”

There was another heavy pause, and then chilling laughter bubbled out from the other end of the line, raising the buzzed hair at the back of Liv’s neck.

“EhA-ha-HE-hE...someone’s playing a trick on me,” Saeran said, muttering to himself, so Liv almost couldn’t make out what he said next. “Can’t be Luciel—no, he doesn’t know her, he doesn’t know, NOBODY knows her except for me, hah-AHah-hA!”

Bewildered and disturbed (which was par for the course when dealing with Ray/Saeran, Liv knew) she wondered if she was going to get anything coherent out of the strange, sad little screwball. She figured she ought to at least try.

“Look, Ray, Saeran, or whatever you want to be called—I don’t know what’s happening here. You’re clearly missing some information too,” —and a few screws while we’re at it, poor thing— “Maybe if we put our heads together, we can figure something out?”

“Ha-hah, you’re trying to trick me. You think I’m that naive—not anymore!” His laughter was cold and high pitched. “You can’t be her, haha-HA! She’s not real. HAH. Not real-not real-not real~lalala I made her up!”

Torn between feeling unnerved and utterly exasperated, Liv interjected in his stream of jabber, “Saeran. _Saeran_! I know it’s a lot to ask, but can you calm the fuck down and be _sane_ for a minute!? _Please_?!”

“Sane? Ha-hah!” He laughed again, sounding so helpless Liv couldn’t help but feel bad. “Who can be sane in a world like this? Heheh-he!”

Trying to remain objective and level headed, Liv conceded, “That’s a very good question... I don’t blame you at all for feeling that way. I find myself questioning my sanity as we speak. But can we please try to unravel this mystery before we curl up and have our own private meltdowns?” She emphasized, “In _private_?”

“Hehe, she always wanted to figure out all the mysteries…the secrets... That’s how I designed her,” he rambled, voice despondent and hoarse. “Are you really...her?”

Carefully considering her words, Liv tried to sound gentle and patient as she spoke next.

“Saeran, I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you mean. I’m Olivia, remember? We just met. Sort of.”

“That’s not possible,” another erratic giggle from his end of the line made Liv’s shoulders tighten. “You can’t be her! I made her up! She’s just a tester bot—a toy! You don’t exist!”

And with that, Liv’s short lived string of patience snapped.

“ _You’re_ the one who doesn’t exist!!” She bit her lip to hold in a dry sob. “This can’t be happening. I’m not having a conversation with a video game character. _This is a dream—just some crazy nightmare_. _I’m going to wake up any second now—_ ”

She knew she wasn’t.

“You know my name, and you even speak English perfectly, just like the backstory I was working on, ha-hah! What a fun prank.” Saeran went on. “I didn’t get too far with the backstory part, because it doesn’t really matter. She was just a tester bot with standard AI features. Just something to play around with when I was bored.” He laughed again, almost childlike. “But you stole her, and the RFA software I was working on! You’d better give them back, you freak, or I’ll hack into your devices and sell all your information on the darkweb—”

The edges of Liv’s vision went black.

“ _Saeran_.” Her voice was sharp and uncompromising. “I want you to shut up and think about a couple things before you even dare to think of threatening me. First, I want you to think of your evil, psycho, bitch of a mother who tied you up, starved you, and tried to strangle you. I want you to think about how hard it is for you to sleep at night because of the nightmares, and how you lie awake in the morning staring at the ceiling feeling empty.” She ignored his sound of distress and went on. “I know you lie there, feeling alone and like no one will ever love you. I know that you work yourself near to death, you’re a nervous wreck, and that you gnaw your fingernails down to bloody bits, and I told you not to worry because at least your toenails will always be perfect, and you laughed harder than you had in years—”

“STOP! Stop! You don’t—you can’t know that—impossible, _impossible_!” Liv heard Saeran’s breath hitch on the other end of the line. “I deleted those chats! I threw them away! There’s no way anyone could have hacked them—not even Luciel!”

“I’m not a hacker, Saeran.” Liv told him gravely. “If you really designed my...character...I think you’d know that’s not one of my skills.” She heard his breathing hitch again. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this clearly isn’t a game anymore.” Her voice darkened with an anger so intense she felt it burn in her chest. “So why don’t you think about that before you _ever_ call me a freak again. Understand?”

“...You hate that word. They used to call you that in school.” His voice sounded faint.

Liv barely suppressed a flinch.

“Yes.” What was the point in denying it? Old resentment burned through her throat and her voice hitched a little even as she struggled to remain clear headed. “But let’s do ourselves a favor and leave the sweet memories for another day, yeah? We have bigger problems. Like, why is reality crumbling around our heads?”

“Hehe...reality’s always doing that.” He giggled again. “It’s fun to watch the pieces shatter.”

And...she lost him again.

“Look,” Liv sighed. “we’re both upset. You have my number, now, right? Why don’t you call me back when you’re feeling better and we’ll...try to put the pieces back together. Somehow.” She pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose allowing for a moment of exasperation and hopelessness, then she rubbed out the moisture from her eyes, careful not to smudge her makeup or jostle her contact lenses. “They say duct tape can fix anything, right?”

“Ha-hah! Duct tape!” And the unhinged laughter was back in full force; thankfully it sounded a bit more genuine this time. “We’ll need lots!”

“Yeah…” Liv’s voice tripped over a helpless laugh, resigned to the madness. “A whole truck load.” She looked up at the sound of her name and saw Zen headed straight for her. She cursed in English and said, “I have to go.”

Saeran’s voice was suddenly desperate.

“You’ll answer when I call you next time, right?” he demanded. “You’ll answer right away?”

“Yes,” she answered, distracted as Zen approached. “Of course. I want to figure this out as much as you do. I’ll work hard on my end, okay? Zen is helping me...” She hesitated for a moment searching for the words to say goodbye and settled on an awkward, “Stay safe.”

With that, she cut the connection, and stared down at her shattered phone screen, feeling troubled and conflicted. She supposed that was just part of Saeran’s charm… He sounded stuck somewhere in a tug of war, flip flopping between his two personas, and the collision was obviously taking its toll on him. 

She didn’t even know where to start contemplating what he’d said about her and this ‘tester bot’ he’d created. Part of her wanted to dismiss it as the typical Saeran crazy, but the shrewder portion of her couldn’t completely ignore it. After all, how could she, when before today, Saeran was nothing but a character in a game app? His voice on the phone, like all the others, was just a recording that she occasionally made up responses to—like the silly one about his perfect toes. She remembered acting out that conversation in her head, her daydreams vivid as always, and she could hear his surprised, guileless laughter echoing so clearly…

 _Can I do something for him?_ she wondered. _Anything?_

They taught her about cults at school, how someone becomes indoctrinated… She’d even gone through special training and done her research. She knew both the FBI and CIA had special units to take care of cults, because people become powerful in large groups, and the individual situations could be so very delicate…just like Saeran’s case. He sorely needed extraction, but with such a fragile mental state...the effort needed to be gentle and patient, two qualities Liv decidedly lacked.

“I just got off the phone with my friends. And Mr. Director doesn’t need us on set today, so we’ve got the rest of the afternoon to take care of this.” Zen looked between her and her phone with obvious concern. “Was that ‘Unknown’? You really picked up?”

“Yeah, I...know him, sort of,” Liv said, still quiet and staring down at the busted screen. Best to tell as much of the truth as possible, right? “This isn’t a good situation.”

“Did he hack your phone?” A furrow worried itself in Zen’s otherwise flawless brow.

“I think my phone hacked _him_ somehow, if you can believe that…” Liv sighed, pocketing the device and rubbing the bridge of her nose as the stress mounted on her. “He’s freaking the fuck out. So am I, for that matter.”

“I am too. Everyone in the RFA is really shocked. How—no, _why_ does this person have our information?” Zen asked, frowning. “You said you know him?”

“More or less. We’ve never met in person. It’s...complicated.” Liv fiddled with the drawstring of her ‘Ghost’ the band hoodie with a nervous frown, wondering just how much she could share. “His name is...let’s just call him Ray. He’s stuck working for this crazy cult that wants the RFA guest list information. But he’s a victim in all this,” she said, dearly hoping Zen would understand, “At heart, Ray is really...a good person.”

“Wha—a _cult_?” Zen raked his hand through his bangs in distress. “Does he need help? Shouldn’t we call the authorities?”

“ _No_!” Liv shook her head wildly, her styled hair going askew. “The leader, she...she has lots of people of authority covering for her. She can make people disappear if she wants. We could be making the situation even worse if we’re not careful.”

“That’s—” Zen shook his head in disbelief. “This is _insane_. Can’t we do anything?”

“This...needs a subtle approach. We have to handle things delicately, or Ray might end up in deeper shit than he already is, that poor bastard...” Liv sighed with building anxiety in her throat. “You said your friends in the RFA could help?”

“I told them what I know, but this…” Zen studied her with narrowed eyes, still frowning. “But, Liv, how do you know about the cult? Or the RFA? We’re not exactly a huge organization. Our charity parties are really exclusive… How are you really involved in all this?”

“I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you…” Liv just shook her head helplessly. “I barely believe it myself, and I’m the one living it. I think…” Her eyes burned with unshed tears of anxiety as she confessed, “I think I need to talk to V. Would that be possible?”

“You know V too?” He looked at her with intense interest. “We all know he’s been keeping secrets, but I never thought…”

“I’m sure he’s never heard of me. I know _of_ V, but that’s it.” Liv was sticking to the truth. “I’ve never met him, and I never expected to. But I think now, it’s probably a good idea to make him aware of the situation, because after this, if I’m right, things are going to start escalating quickly...” Liv brushed her platinum bangs out of her face with growing agitation. “He’s not going to be happy with me. He’s been carefully building a house of cards, and I’m about to blow it right down.” She sighed deeply, shaking her head in disbelief. “I never thought I’d ever get involved in something like this… What a nightmare.” She looked back at Zen, pleading for him to understand. “Please, believe me when I say I never meant for any of this to happen.”

“I...do believe you,” he said, his eyes sincere. “I’m not sure why, but I get the feeling you’re not a bad person, Liv. V is the smartest person I know, so I’m sure he’ll see that too, even if it means giving up some of his precious secrets.” He offered her a good natured smile. “If you ask me, this has been a longtime coming, so I don’t think it’s your fault.”

With his words, Liv felt some of her anxiety melt away, and she truly meant it when she said, “Thank you for believing me, Zen.” 

“Haha, of course.” His smile widened. “We’re going to be partners, right?” He laughed that inside-joke-laugh of his again, and leaned in to tell her, “You know, despite the circumstances, I’m glad you’re the one I’m co-starring with on this film. Anyone else would be boring by comparison.”

“Yeah...” When Liv laughed, it sounded hollow. “Never a dull moment in this line of work, is there?”

Once again, Liv pondered her life’s choices, and how very far things had flung out of her control. Her carefully-thought-out plans, her fortress of contingencies was crumbling down around her like a dried up sand castle. Then again, maybe she was being too hard on herself. Because who in the world could ever plan for life to turn into a video game?

“That’s why I love it! It’s my dream job!” Zen’s phone suddenly started ringing out a jaunty tone, and when he looked at the ID he seemed surprised. “Huh? Seven? He must’ve seen the chat logs… I need to take this.”

“Of course…” She flinched when her phone quacked at her with a text message, and sighed in exasperation when Zen laughed at her.

“Why are your phone settings set to such ridiculous ringtones?” he chuckled as he answered his phone.

“My nine-year-old brother set it up for me and I haven’t had the heart to change it,” she explained, opening her home screen to see a text from ‘Unknown.’ “I should see what he wants too…”

She opened up her texts and frowned.

**Hey, tester bot, you better answer.**

**I’ll call you soon, so you better pick up right away!**

**I need you to tell me what’s happening with the RFA.**

Liv frowned, thinking out her response as she pulled up her Hangul keyboard.

**I will, don’t worry. Zen’s on the phone with Luciel.**

She sent it, then hesitated before going ahead and sending a second text.

**I hope you don’t get in trouble because of this.**

**Is everything okay with you?**

A moment later, she got a text back.

**Who’s worried?**

**Are you worrying about me? How annoying. Don’t be an idiot.**

Liv’s frown deepened.

**What I’m saying is that you probably shouldn’t tell HER anything until we work out a solution to keep her happy.**

**I’ll keep you updated, and we can come up with a compromise, or at least a stalemate where no one gets hurt, okay?**

**I don’t want you to get hurt because of this...**

**We don’t know why this is happening yet, so please don’t blame yourself.**

**I know you like to do that.**

A second later, he sent,

**Worry about yourself more…**

**You disappeared from my computer to the real world, where anything can happen to you.**

**Don’t you get it? You’re the one in danger!**

Liv felt a slow, incredulous smile creeping onto her lips.

**Now, who’s worried?**

**It’s okay. I might not look like much, but I’m actually pretty tough, you know.**

**I can survive anything.**

**I’ll believe that when I see it**

Liv could never resist a challenge.

She opened up her camera, gave it a sardonic twist of her lips and a cheerful one-finger salute, then sent off the selfie with zero regrets.

**Look.**

**Look at it.**

**Let it sink in. Cherish it. Really experience it.**

She expected to get something scathing back right away. He’d call her ugly and she’d laugh. Something like that.

Instead, she got,

**How…?**

**How do you look exactly like I pictured her in my head?**

Liv’s smile faded as a sad, yet horribly familiar feeling settled in her chest.

**I am her.**

**I am Liv.**

But even after putting it down in words, a time old question branded itself into her mind.

 _Am I real?_

Unsettled, she shook her head and slipped her phone back into her pocket, willing herself to stop thinking. That road only led down to dark twisted places she’d rather not revisit any time soon.

“Are you sure? Right… Yeah. Okay. Let me ask her first.” Zen looked over at her and asked, “Liv, will you come with me to meet a member of the RFA? He’s a little strange, but I can’t think of anyone better to figure out how our app got onto your phone.” He gave her a bright smile. “And I’ll be with you the whole time to make sure he won’t try anything weird.” Liv heard a loud voice from Zen’s phone but couldn’t make out any of the words. He held it away from his ear with a wince and stared at it like it had personally offended him. “You can see for yourself if she agrees to—” Even Zen’s scowling face was pretty, Liv noted. “No! Don’t even think about it! I won’t let you! Dammit, Seven! Don’t you dare—”

Zen grew more and more agitated as the one sided conversation escalated to a speed that was simply beyond Liv’s level of Korean.

“Um!” she deliberately raised her voice just enough that Zen’s phone could pick it up, taking a step towards him to say, “If it will help us figure things out, I’d be happy to follow you to the Batcave. How far is it from here?”

Liv clearly heard a laugh from Zen’s phone and a handful of words, and then it beeped the end of the call. 

Zen lowered the phone and sighed, shaking his head. “He’s texting me the address. It’s weird, I’ve known him for years now, and I’ve never actually learned where he lives… Not sure how I feel about that. But hey, Liv,” He looked at her earnestly, “I hope you don’t feel pressured into this. It can’t feel good for you to follow someone you just met to a strange guy’s house.”

“It’s okay,” Liv said. “I don’t get pressured easily. So if I’m following you anywhere, just know I’m doing it because I trust you.”

He raised his brows at her and beamed. “Hah! I hope you don’t trust everyone you meet. You’re too cute to get taken advantage of.”

Liv raised her brows right back, amusement and anticipation at a chance for mischief gathering in her chest. 

“Ah… In that case, I should probably apologize to you.”

Zen blinked at her.

“Huh?”

“What is the phrase in Korean…?” She muttered to herself, thinking. “Ah! That’s right. A blackbird may be black but its flesh is white. Appearances can be deceiving. Case in point:” She gestured to herself with a flamboyant flourish. “I’m cursed with this baby face. I hate being dishonest, but it deceives everyone I meet. So, please accept my apology.” She offered a teasing smile. “Rather than cute, my personality is actually a little devious. Please keep that in mind, and don’t let your guard down around me because I’d hate to take advantage of someone as lovely as you.”

“T-take advantage…” A light dusting of a blush bloomed in his cheeks. “of...me? ...Lovely?”

“You don’t let just any girl follow you around, do you?” Liv’s smile morphed into an impish grin. “If that’s the case, it’s a good thing we’re friends now. I’ll protect you if any bad ones try to put the moves on you.”

At that, Zen caught onto the joke and burst out laughing, startling one of the makeup artists as she packed up her kit.

“What?” Liv laughed along, pretending to be offended. “You don’t think I can do it?”

Grinning at her, Zen said, “I don’t think you’re like any girl I’ve ever met.”

Liv gave him a wink. “I knew you’d catch on quick.”

He was about to respond when his phone beeped at him, and he sighed, opening up a text message.

“That’s the address… To be honest, I really don’t want to take you to Seven’s house,” he said. “I’d rather take you out for drinks instead and then practice our lines together. I’m really looking forward to performing with you now.”

“That _would_ be fun,” Liv agreed with a nod. “With any luck, we can get this thing resolved quickly, and then go do that. I don’t usually drink;” she ammended with a short laugh, “I was just going to go home and have a small mental breakdown later, but now that I think about it, good drinks and good company sounds better…”

“I’m glad you think so!” Zen grinned at her, then leaned in to say, “After all, my heart just breaks thinking of such a _cute_ girl crying all alone.”

Liv laughed despite herself. 

“You’re going to torment me with ‘cute’ from now on, aren’t you?”

He returned her wink from earlier. “I catch on quick.”

 _Hello, new best friend,_

is what she wanted to say. 

But as she followed Zen out of the studio, onto the street, and down to the subway, chatting and throwing pleasant banter back and forth, Liv just couldn’t shake the dissociative feeling of earlier from her bones—that wavering sensation of disconnect from her current reality, leaving her puzzled on what was real and what wasn’t. She’d always had trouble with dissociation ever since she could remember, but it had never been so disconcerting as it was now. She even used to enjoy it on occasion, at least until reality slammed back into place with a collision powerful enough to make her head spin.

Now, Liv found herself struggling to hold onto the here and now. She saw Zen standing next to her, saw him smile, heard him laugh, felt his kind hand on her shoulder when he braced her for the subway train’s jarring stop. But it almost felt like it was happening to someone else, and she was just watching another visual novel play out on her phone. Was any of this real...or not?

More to the point, did she _want_ it to be? 

The side of her that was made of pure practicality protested that it didn’t matter what she wanted; what matters is the truth. But something deeper at the root of the problem told her this was important. Something told her that even if she knew the truth, even if her mind could naturally differentiate reality from fiction like a normal person’s, in the circumstances Liv found herself in now…

She had a feeling even a normal person would have trouble accepting it.

But as she delved deeper into the nebulous, dark well of her feelings, Liv found in herself a curious spot of warmth she could only identify as...hope. She wasn’t unfamiliar with hope; in fact, hope was something Liv was a full advocate for. There was a time when she thought it might be gone forever, but she’d proven herself wrong. Liv knew better than anyone how powerful and inexhaustible hope could be—how resilient it could make someone. Once she found it again, she refused to let go, and used it as a tool to drag herself out of the pit she’d dug for herself. Today, she used it to raise her head up from the ground and see the opportunities she could seize all around her if she just kept holding onto that burning, bright feeling. 

This hope was something different though.

It was a soft, tiny, tremulous thing—like, and yet unlike the indomitable hopes she’d forged for her future in fire and turmoil. 

_It’s just like a baby_ , she realized, _so new and innocent…but where did it come from_?

She was almost afraid to examine it further, because she suspected, even before she had a chance to wonder, that if she followed the tenuous strand back to its origin...she would find that it came from her truest self—the self she kept swaddled up in the softest cotton, entombed in the most sacred shrine, in a tower surrounded by steadfast walls, in a beautiful room filled with all the things she loved. And only Liv had the key to it. She didn’t visit the room very often, even if everything she did, she did for what, and more importantly _who_ , was in that room. The occupant was usually sleeping peacefully, but every so often, she’d stir, and send out some fleeting feeling into the dark either that Liv would dutifully chase after, even if she was ambivalent about it.

Like this hope.

 _What in the world are you thinking_? she whispered to herself.

 _I’m lonely_ , herself whispered back. _I want a friend._

And when Liv looked over at Zen and he smiled at her, she felt that small little hope turning within her. 

_This friend?_ she wondered to herself. _But he might not be real_ …

 _Does it matter?_ herself wondered back.

_Does it matter?_

_Does it matter?_

The thought echoed almost eerily in the dark expanse of Liv’s mind, and when she found that she could not find a definite answer to it, she smiled back at Zen.

_Maybe not._

“You look like you’re thinking pretty hard about something.” He gave her another teasing grin and said, “I wonder what’s going on inside that oh so _cute_ head of yours.”

She rolled her eyes and turned her gaze out the window where the city was racing by. They just switched trains fifteen minutes ago and were clearly headed away from the city center...

“You and me both...” she said, almost too quiet for him to hear. Before he could inquire further, she told him, “I’m glad you seem to know where we’re going, because my sense of direction is awful. The only places I know how to get to in Seoul are the studio, my apartment, the market, and this sweets bakery down my street that I’m addicted to.”

“I see you’ve got your priorities straight—work, home, food, and a sweets addiction,” he laughed, shaking his head at her. “Are those really the only places you’ve been since coming to Seoul?”

“Yep. I guess I’m not much one for tourism, not that I wouldn’t enjoy it if I had someone to show me around.” She smiled back at him. “My sense of direction is just really that terrible. I’d get lost in a city like this on my own in an instant, even with GPS.” She chuckled. “My mom always used to say I have the sense of direction of a gnat that can’t find its way out of a paper bag.”

“I’ve never heard that before. Is that some kind of American phrase?” He gave her a puzzled look. “It doesn’t sound flattering…”

“Haha, you’re right about that. It hurt at the time, because it’s meant to describe someone who’s particularly dimwitted. To be fair though,” she interjected before he could look too concerned, “my mom wasn’t wrong.” At his alarmed expression, Liv shook her head with a deprecating chuckle. “I used to do dimwitted things all the time. I was a bit of a delinquent when I was in high school, to be honest. And even though things are different now, it’s difficult to change a parent’s perceptions of the child they raised...” She smiled brightly at him and held up a determined fist. “But we’re both doing our best to understand each other, and we’re making real progress!” This time, when she laughed, it was with true happiness. “I’m super excited about it.”

“That’s…” Slowly, Zen smiled. “That’s really nice to hear, actually. It makes me feel hopeful.”

“I would _hope_ so,” Liv quipped with a quick grin. “Hope is really all you need in life. I could go on preaching all day long about how important it is to stay positive and never lose hope, no matter what life throws at you. But I think you already understand me.”

“Haha, I just might know a thing or two about it. The way you talk about it though, it almost makes you sound devout—like it’s some kind of religion,” Zen remarked.

“Really?” Liv shrugged with a laugh. “Maybe it should be. I think hope is a gift from the universe. It’s like a currency for dreams.

“Currency?” He gave her another puzzled look. “You mean, like money to pay for dreams?”

“Sort of, yeah.” Liv nodded and explained, “The more you have hope, in other words, the more you believe in something, the greater chance you have of making that thing a reality. There is a direct correlation between belief and success.” She quickly amended, “Of course, belief by itself isn’t enough, you also have to take action. But you can only take action if you _believe_ you can. Hope is where it all starts. And it can be applied to every aspect of your life.” Liv gave a sheepish chuckle at the alarmed look on his face. “Am I making any sense at all?”

“Y-yeah…” Zen blinked off his shock quickly and smiled. “Sorry...it’s just, for a second there you sounded a lot like someone I used to know.” His smile turned bittersweet as he said, “She...had to leave this world. And all of us in the RFA miss her dearly...”

Liv felt her stomach turn at the thought of being _anything_ like Rika. But...Zen only knew the best side of Rika, so she knew she shouldn’t feel upset. It was a compliment, so she should feel thankful, right? And… She studied Zen’s face carefully and saw the sadness in his eyes, even if he was smiling.

Even though she knew Korean propriety advised against it, Liv reached over and took Zen’s hand.

“I’m sorry she left you.”

There was nothing else she could say.

If Liv was being sincere, she could only muster up a small measure of sympathy for Rika.

The rest of her sympathy was reserved for the ones hurt by Rika.

And the lion’s share of that was reserved for the ones _still_ being hurt by Rika.

Even before Liv learned the truth about Rika, she still hadn’t held much sympathy for her.

“You know,” she told Zen, still holding his hand. “I used to know someone like that too. He was my best friend.” She laughed a little bitterly. “My only friend, if I’m being honest.”

“No! Your best friend...also…?” Zen studied her intently, concern written starkly upon his fair face.

“Heh, almost…” Liv’s smile felt hollow on her face as she turned again to watch the cityscape fly by, and it slowly faded. “He would’ve done it if he hadn’t told me about it first. He always acted so carefree around everyone else, but he trusted me more than anyone. So, naturally, he told me everything about how he hated living, and no matter what I said, it couldn’t change his mind.” After a moment of studying her own blank reflection in the glass, she put on her best smile and turned back to Zen. “So, I betrayed his trust without thinking twice about it. Long story short, I tracked down his relatives and they stopped him from going through with it.” At Zen’s shocked expression, Liv only shrugged. “He hasn’t wanted anything to do with me ever since.” The smile on her face sharpened like a razor. “But I’d rather die than say I’m sorry.”

“That’s…” Zen shook his head slowly. “Even though you say that like it was no big deal...you must have been under a lot of pressure to make a decision—no, a sacrifice like that.” When Liv just smiled and shrugged, he said, “I don’t even know what I would have done in a situation like that...with Rika.” He shook his head again. “But your friend...do you know if he’s still…?”

“Alive? Oh, definitely. And thriving, the last time I checked,” Liv said. “We went to the same university. He graduated this year, and went on to get into his dream job, from what I heard. The last time I saw him on campus, he was holding hands with a girl and laughing.”

“And...he hasn’t talked to you since then? Not a word?” Zen asked. “You don’t think there’s any chance the two of you might make up, like you and your mother?”

Liv shrugged. 

“Never say never I suppose, but…” She sighed and looked away. “I’ve always thought people’s hearts are a little like houses. They invite you in, and show you all around these neat rooms where you can explore and play and have fun and laugh together for hours and hours…” She smiled. “And some of them are shut, and won’t open unless you knock politely. Some of them are dark, and the person won’t want to go in with you until you shine a light. And some doors are completely locked, and won’t open until that person gives you the key. And sometimes…” Her smile faded. “Sometimes, even if a person invites you back in, all the doors are locked, and no matter how much either one of you wants it, and however many keys you try, the doors just won’t open again…” She stared down at their joined hands. “Hearts are tricky things, Zen.”

“But...that sounds so sad. And aren’t you contradicting yourself from earlier?” he pointed out. “About believing, and having hope?”

“Haha, that’s likely. I’m a mess of contradictions, I’ll admit it.” Liv shrugged with a goofy smile. “I’m only human, you know.”

After a moment, Zen smiled back and gave her fingers a warm squeeze.

“I like that about you,” he said. “And just so you know…” He winked at her. “You’ve got an invitation to my house any day of the week.”

With that, Liv felt that baby hope inside her give a mighty kick that almost brought tears to her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice a little strained, “but can I hug you right now?”

“R-right now?” He asked, blushing and sending an alarmed glance around them. “On a train full of people??”

Liv laughed. “I can wait ‘til we get off the train if you’re embarrassed. Or even later at your house—”

“That’s even worse!” When Liv laughed harder, he narrowed his eyes at her and said, “Eh? You’re teasing me again, aren’t you.”

“Maybe just a little…” She giggled at him and squeezed his hand. “I know Koreans aren’t fans of public displays of affection. But I’m from America, and I can’t help but miss it.” She shrugged with a sheepish smile. “I’ll do my best not to embarrass you though...as a friend, or a co-star.” Suddenly she gasped, “Hey, I’m still shaky on my honorifics so I’m not sure about this, but since you’re much more experienced than me as an actor, shouldn’t I be calling you _Sunbaenim_?”

“But if you call me that, it means you can’t tease me anymore,” Zen pointed out with a grin.

Liv groaned and tugged on her pixie short hair. “This Korean hierarchy system is so confusing!”

“I think you’re doing just fine being yourself.” Zen laughed at her dramatics and said, “Propriety is overrated anyway.”

“So…” Liv’s gave him a sly smile. “Does that mean I can hug you whenever I want?”

She watched in delight as Zen proceeded to have an internal war with himself, cheeks bright as Rudolph’s nose on Christmas, and he finally choked out, “...M-maybe when a couple more people get off the train??”

“Or maybe not...because it would just be a tragedy for the world if your face was permanently stuck that color.” Liv dissolved into a fit of giggles as the color in his cheeks deepened even further. “Your moonlight complexion would be completely ruined, and I won’t be responsible for that. Ah! I remember now! _That’s_ who you remind me of!” Liv tapped her temple. “Tsukiyomi! The Japanese god of the moon!” 

Slowly, Zen smiled. “A _god_?”

Liv grinned making sure to lay it on thick. “But truthfully, I think your smile is a hundred times brighter than the moon god’s.”

“Well, that’s because the gods made a mistake when they created me,” Zen said, playing along, flicking his ponytail back over his shoulder with a flourish.

“Haha, you know…in Greek mythology, the gods used to have children with mortals all the time.” Liv gasped. “That’s got to be it! The moon god came down from the moon and bewitched your mother! There’s no other explanation!”

They spent the rest of the train taking turns speculating about the origins of Zen’s good looks which grew more and more ridiculous as they went on. It went from gods, to aliens, to fairy changelings, to genetic experimentation, but in the end, Liv’s favorite was still the moon god theory.

She was still having trouble with her dissociation but talking helped. Laughing helped. Holding onto Zen’s hand helped. He noticed her spacing out every so often, but always managed to bring her back by giving her hand a squeeze or drawing her into another conversation, and he was thankfully understanding enough not to ask too much about it. She didn’t doubt he probably would at some point if it continued to be a problem, but Liv was hoping it would go away on its own before it got that bad—praying, actually. She didn’t want to have to get back on meds again if she could help it, but if the symptoms grew worse…

She didn’t want to think about what happened when things got worse.

When they got off the train Zen checked the address again and called a taxi. They were definitely at the outskirts of the city and Seven’s house was even further out.

Zen gave a dramatic sigh, and said, “I don’t know why Seven decided to buy a house all the way out here… I guess there’s no other option but to wa—” At that moment, both of their phones started ringing and Zen cringed once again at Liv’s Nyan Cat ringtone. “We are _fixing_ that the next chance we get—the sooner the better! Ah…” He looked at his phone. “That’s Seven right now. I’ll see what he wants.”

The ID ‘Unknown’ flashed at Liv through her cracked screen, and before she picked up, she took a brief moment to muse over the chances of both the twins calling them at exactly the same time.

 _Go figure…_ she thought and hit answer.

“You picked up!” Saeran sounded astonished, if not a little more coherent than last time they spoke.

“I told you I would,” Liv said, trying to be patient. “Are you feeling better?”

“I…I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” His voice was quiet, and Liv found his assurance _less_ than reassuring.

“I wanted to apologize, for what I said earlier…” She said, feeling bad for bringing up painful memories. “It was unnecessarily cruel just to prove a point like that… I should’ve just sent you my picture from the start. You believe me now, right?”

“There’s no way anyone could’ve known what the tester bot’s avatar looked like…unless they hacked my head,” Searan mused to himself, then sounded a little panicky. “That’s not possible, right??”

“Not that I know of,” Liv said, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice. “I think I saw a Syfy movie like that once though, if you want to look into it.”

“I have too much work…” He let out an exhausted sigh. “What’s happening with you right now? You said you’re with an RFA member?”

“Zen’s on the phone with Luciel again. We’re waiting on a cab right now, headed to his place.”

“You’re going to his _house_???” Liv raised her brows at the alarm in his voice. “Don’t! Turn around right now, it’s dangerous!!”

“Sae—” She started to say his name but glanced back at Zen over her shoulder and thought better of it. “Look, I’m going to call you Ray for now. I have to go to Luciel’s place so he can take a look at my phone and figure out how the app got onto it. And…” She should just nip this in the bud. “There’s some things you should know about V and Luciel. I know you don’t want to hear this, but I learned things from playing through their routes, and I should tell you now, before I actually meet them, just so you don’t think they brainwashed me into saying it.” _Which would be tragically ironic._ “You’re being misled about them. They’re _not_ your enemies.”

“Not my—” He made a choked sound, and Liv heard coughing in the background which made her wince. Poor thing couldn’t even verbalize the possibility. “Liv-ahaha—” he coughed some more, and Liv truly started to feel worried. “I don’t care…about V, just stay away from Luciel! It’s too dangerous for you!”

“Ray…” she tried to sound calm and collected, so she didn’t aggravate his condition even more. “I have to get my phone checked out. It’s the only way—”

“Just come _here_ and let me look at it!” Though it sounded like a command, it also sounded like he was pleading, and Liv’s heart broke a little. “I can find out more than he ever could! He doesn’t know anything about your situation, so he’d be working from wrong information from the start, looking in all the wrong places! It’s better if you come here,” he said again, something desperate in his voice. “Just stay here with me and be safe.”

“Ray, I think you know that’s not a good idea…” Liv said, lowering her voice as Zen got off the phone and looked over at her. “You know I wouldn’t be safe there. Nobody’s safe there. Including _you_.”

“I’m fine!” he said, forcing his voice high and cheerful, though the desperation still seeped through loud and clear. “Everything is fine! It’s paradise here! You’ll see. I can hide you. You’ll be safe! I just…” The cheer drained out of him until only the desperation was left behind. “I just need to see…” The ‘ _you_ ’ went unspoken, but he tried to cover with, “I just need to see that you’re safe.”

“I’ll be safe,” she said, “I promise.” When that didn’t seem like enough to convince him, she added, “If it will make you feel better, I’ll call you, and send you a selfie every day as evidence. If I don’t, you’ll call me. I’ll always answer, and if I don’t, then you’ll know something is wrong. I’ll can send you the contacts of people who know how to track me down. They’re…” She hesitated with a grimace. “…good at what they do.”

“But…Luciel…” Searan coughed again. It seemed just saying his name—and not even his real one—was difficult. “It’s not…”

“There’s nothing Luciel can do to me that I can’t pay him back for a hundred times worse,” Liv said with a wry twist to her lips. “Please trust me, Ray. And when the time comes,” she paused and put careful emphasis behind each word, “please hear him out. Both Luciel and V have a lot to answer for, but…” She heard his quick intake of breath when she whispered, “they’re _not_ who she said they were…” She looked over at Zen as he signaled her, and saw the taxi pulling up. “I have to go now. But I’ll call you later tonight, okay?”

“O-okay…I’ll be waiting.” He coughed one more time before his voice sounded stronger. “Text me those contacts as soon as possible. And call me every day. I want to know your every move.”

Liv snorted. “Even if I’m just going to the bathroom?”

“Wha! _Liv_ , this is serious!” he stressed, his voice plying her, “Even if you say it’s safe, I…”

“I understand.” She didn’t, really. Earlier, he seemed confused, unhinged and hostile, and now…there was genuine worry in his voice. It was sweet in a way. And Liv was too much of a bleeding heart not to humor him. She just wished she knew what was going on in his head. “I promise, everything will be fine. And Zen is with me right now.” She smiled at him and the actor sent her a curious look as she slid into the back seat next to him. “He won’t let anything happen to me.”

“Is that the hacker?” Zen whispered; his brows raised in alarm when Liv nodded.

“I don’t feel good about this…” Saeran let her know. “But I’ll trust you…for now.” His voice was fervent as he beseeched her. “ _Call me_. As soon as you get home, so I know you’re safe.”

“Yeah, I will…” Liv promised, still feeling a bit uneasy. It had been a long time since anyone had showed such blatant concern for her, and she had mixed feelings about it. “I’ll send you those contacts and we’ll talk again soon…” She hesitated and added, “You stay safe too, Ray.”

And with that, she ended the phone call.

She’d always been awkward with goodbyes, even (especially) over the phone.

“This hacker, Ray…” Zen said, watching her watch her phone thoughtfully. “He seems really concerned about you.”

“Yeah…he’s a nervous wreck.” Liv nodded. “It’s a little weird, actually. But he’s always been a little weird, so I can’t tell if this anxiety is actual weirdness or just his normal level of weird.”

“Heh, then you must know him pretty well?” Zen asked, eyes bright with interest.

“I know him a little _too_ well…” Liv muttered, feeling grim. _Too well for my own comfort._

“So, you’ve worked together?” Zen probed further, looking a little _too_ interested now. “Or are you…”

He trailed off deliberately, and it took Liv a second to see what he was getting at. When she got it, her eyes went wide, and she shook her head wildly.

“Oh, _no_ -no-no-no-no! That just— _no_. No way!” She shook her head again for good measure and held her arms in the shape of an X. “Absolutely not! Ray is…” She winced, and tried to explain, “not in a good place, mentally or physically, right now.”

“Sooo…you’re saying he’s not your type?” Zen tapped his chin thoughtfully.

Liv covered her face in exasperation.

“That is _not_ what I’m saying.” She sighed into her hand. “Ray is a _wonderful_ person, really, but…he needs to get himself out of that place and straightened out before thinking of anyone else. That doesn’t leave much room for a healthy relationship…”

 _I should know_ . _And not just because I got a bad end, like, three separate times on his route._

_Then again, it’s not like I can talk about healthy relationships like I know the first thing about them…_

“So, you don’t work together, and you’re not lovers…” Liv winced as Zen said that word. “Then how _are_ you connected?”

“I…can’t really explain it. We’re still shaky on the details.” She rubbed a hand down her face. “For simplicity’s sake, let’s just say we were pen pals—” _If pen pals could send messages across the barriers of reality_ “—who didn’t actually think the other existed until today. Before that, I thought everything about you guys, and Ray, was _fictional_.” She rolled her eyes. “And Ray apparently thought I was a _chat bot_ he created.”

Zen blinked at her in shock.

“That’s insane.”

“You want to hear insane, ask me about this again when I’m ready to tell you the unabridged version.” She chuckled, her voice a little off. “You know, there’s this phrase we have in America; you might’ve heard it before…”

She shook her head with a shaky smile and looked out the window.

“The truth is stranger than fiction,” she said to her reflection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **SO, this first chapter is horrendously long.**
> 
> **If you made it this far, I applaud you!**
> 
> **I'm going to be honest here and say I'm relatively new to the Mystic Messenger fandom. I had a disheartening chat with a friend who's a HUGE Mystic Messenger fan the other day about this story, and she brought up some valid points. Mystic Messenger is a quintessential otome game, albeit, the most extensively immersive one I've ever played. And otome games, by the genre, and the very definition of immersion, encourage the player to insert themselves as MC.**
> 
> **As I'm sure you've gathered by now, if you've read this far, Liv is not MC. She's very much an Original Character with her own highly extensive backstory that will play a huge role in shaping events taken from several game routes. My friend pointed out that many Mystic Messenger fans might become personally offended by this. She's right, of course, and I almost didn't publish this story because of it.**
> 
> **But even though she's right, I still feel like Liv is a very well developed and enjoyable character who can offer a lot to the story of Mystic Messenger. I'm proud that I created her. Sometimes she makes me laugh like crazy, sometimes she makes me want to cry, sometimes she makes me blush, and sometimes she just makes me want to slap myself, almost like a real friend.**
> 
> **So to all those lonely folks out there, I hope that Liv can be a friend to you too in these crazy times, and that you'll cheer her on in the story to come.**
> 
> **Thank you.**


	2. The Hacker Dark Knight of Justice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zen and Liv visit Seven's house for the first time... What wonders and terrors will they discover there?? - _insert Seven singing the jaws theme_ -

**June 11th 12:50PM**

There are times in life where the paths of two people collide in an explosion of circumstance.

The very air around them vibrates with a feeling that Liv could only describe as _fate_.

To be fair, she had been experiencing a lot of that lately, but this…

 _This_ was something else entirely.

“Are you sure you two want to be dropped off _here_?” the taxi driver asked, staring them down with dubious eyes.

Seven’s address was a mailbox on a bumpy dirt road fifteen minutes outside the city.

If there was a house, it was not visible from said road, nor was it visible from said mailbox.

There was a trail that led off into the bushes… _somewhere_. But that was it.

Liv would have been more skeptical were every inch of the aforementioned mailbox not covered in black and yellow caution tape; additionally, it had a device that looked very much like a retina scanner from a James Bond film attached to it…

“Yeah…” said Zen, also eyeing the mailbox from a safe distance. “This is the place, alright. Thanks for the ride, _Gisanim_.”

Liv was going to pay her half of the faire, but Zen waved her off like he was offended.

Men.

Koreans.

 _Korean men_.

Maybe one day Liv would understand them, but today was not that day.

Zen checked his phone with a puzzled frown, and said, “His directions say to ‘follow the path of vengeance, follow the path of the night, follow the path of’…? What the…? I don’t even—Liv? Hey, wait up!”

“I hope there’s not any poison ivy in here…” she muttered as she gingerly picked her way through the overgrown foliage. It was a worn path though, so she thought it must see a decent amount of use.

“Poison ivy?!” Zen made a distressed sound. “Can you imagine if it got on my face?! It makes me feel faint just thinking about it…” He let out a dramatic groan. “Why does Seven live in a place like this??”

“Maybe he did it just to annoy you.” Liv sent a grin back over her shoulder at him.

“He _would_ do that!” Zen exclaimed with a perfect scowl on his face. “You don’t know this guy like I do Liv—he _lives_ to mess with people. So, don’t be fooled if he acts all innocent!”

“I’m pretty good at messing with people too, you know,” Liv assured him. “I know some awesome pranks. I kind of hope he _does_ try something, just so I can use one in retaliation.”

“That sounds…like a very good way to start a war with Seven.” Zen cringed. “All the collateral damage…it’s scary just to think about it!”

“I can be scary too!” Liv insisted.

“I prefer it when you’re being _cute_ ,” he teased.

Liv made a forbidding face at him and he laughed.

She shortly got her revenge when a branch whipped him in the face, and she had to slap a hand over her mouth to hold in an unattractive guffaw. The following sound of helpless rage just about did her in.

“WHERE IS SEVEN’S HOUSE?! When I find him, I’m going to take this branch and slap him with it!” he said, irate. “Path of vengeance—I’ll show him vengeance…FOR MY FACE.”

“I think…” Liv began, just about to break into a fit of giggles, but paused when she saw a structure emerging up ahead of them. “Hey, wait, is that it?”

“It _better_ be, or so help me, I’ll…” Zen trailed off in bemusement as they stood before… “Is that an elevator?”

There was indeed an elevator built into the embankment.

They both exchanged a long look.

“Hey,” Liv said suddenly. “Do you remember that TV show, Lost?”

“Eh?” Zen looked startled for a second, then recognition crossed his face. “Oh, yeah, the one with the plane crash on the creepy island, and the really half-assed characterization of Koreans.” He laughed. “It was on a long time ago, right? I remember my brother used to like it…” He trailed off with a shake of his head. “Anyway, what about it?”

“Well…there was this mysterious ‘hatch’ the survivors found out in the jungle, and they had to blow it up to get it to open,” Liv explained, still staring at the elevator. “And at end of the season one, it left off on a cliff hanger of staring down into this deep, black pit, with no clue what could possibly be lurking down there…”

When she looked back over at Zen, it was only to find him staring between her and the elevator looking utterly unnerved. It only got worse when a computerized voice recited, “Intruders detected. Access denied. Recognition sequence initiated. Please stand still.” Liv heard Zen let out a curse when a red scanner light flashed over the both of them. “Identification ‘Zen’ and ‘Newcomer’ confirmed. Access granted. Welcome, guests of God Seven.”

The elevator doors rattled open and a buzzing fluorescent light flickered on.

Inside, Liv whispered to Zen, “This feels like the beginning of a very bad horror movie…” When he nodded in vehement agreement, she asked, “Do you have any experience acting in horror? You know, just in case?”

“This is the one instance I don’t think acting experience will help…” Zen muttered back with an uneasy expression as the doors slid shut…sealing their fate.

To make things even worse, when the elevator lurched down, old music started to play from unseen speakers. It was oddly familiar, though, and while Zen looked even more unnerved, Liv’s eyes slowly widened in recognition and a smile broke out on her face.

“Is that the Batman theme song?!”

Sure enough, the intro gave way to, “ _Batman, Batman, Batmaaan_ ~!”

“Is he serious…?” Zen broke off and sighed in exasperation. “Never mind. That’s a pointless question. When it comes to Seven, the world may never know.”

“I don’t know either, but if it means he’s a fan of Batman, I already like him,” Liv said, still grinning.

“Huh? No way.” Zen raised his brows at her. “You’re a fan of Batman, Liv?”

“Yeah! I love all sorts of comics, but Batman…” She let out a girlish sigh and held both hands over her cheeks.

“So _that’s_ your type…” Zen looked thoughtful.

“Oh, yeah.” Liv laughed. “I just can’t resist a strong, broody, emotionally unavailable guy who punches people in the face. Why do you think I decided to come all the way to Korea to be in this movie?”

“Is it bad that I can’t tell if you’re joking or not…?”

Liv tapped her nose and whispered, “The world may never know.”

“You’re as bad as Seven!” Zen accused her, though he seemed more amused than irritated.

“You know,” Liv said, with an evil grin, “just because you said that, I’m going to do my very best to be _worse_ …”

“ _Worse_ than Seven…??” For a second, he stared into space like whatever he was seeing, he was having trouble just imagining it. Then he looked at her and took a deliberate step away. “That’s actually a little terrifying, Liv.”

“I’m sure he’s not _that_ bad…” Liv said, (despite knowing otherwise), as the elevator doors opened with a ding.

Zen only laughed at her with the experience of one wise and well versed in the ways of 707, gesturing her to enter first into the dark unknown like the kind gentleman he was. “When you change your mind, just remember I’m right here beside you.”

“That’s _so_ very sweet of you to say—what a gentleman!” Liv said, half-sarcastic and half-sincere, and as she stepped out, she wondered, “But, do we leave our shoes in the elevator, or…?”

“I’d say hold on to them,” Zen said, stepping out of his boots and picking them up with a firm grip. “This is Seven’s place, so who knows what might happen if you leave them alone?”

“Oh, right. Because the _mutant shoe-eater_ might get them!” Liv grinned as she stuffed her sandals into her bag. “Good thinking, Zen!”

“ _Shoe-eat_ —” Zen blinked at her, mystified. “Where do you come _up_ with this stuff?”

“I’m not making it up!” Liv insisted. “One of them lived under my bed when I was a kid! Or at least…that’s what I told my mom whenever I ran out of matching pairs of socks—it eats those too. Anything to do with feet, really. I used to have nightmares about it where I’d wake up with it licking out the stuff between my toes, or…” She trailed off when she noticed the bewildered look on Zen’s face and gave him a sheepish grin. “Let’s just say I’ve always had an active imagination…”

“I’ve gotta hand it to you, Liv,” Zen dissolved into helpless laughter, shaking his head at her, “you might not be worse than Seven, but I think you’ll definitely give him a run for his money.”

“I’m going to take that as a complement,” she decided, elbowing him fondly as she walked beside him into the— “Whoa… This place really _is_ like the Batcave!”

It was nothing at all like the Mystic Messenger game had portrayed Seven’s house to look like, but if Liv remembered correctly, he was said to move around a lot. He must not have the caution tape-traffic light-Arabic security gate house yet. In comparison, this place was the opposite of where you’d expect someone as fun-loving as 707 to live. It looked and felt exactly like an edgy military bunker, lit only by sparse fluorescent rods embedded along the bottom edges of the walls, like the stairs in a movie theatre. Instead of windows, there were boxlike vents where one could hear the rhythmic whirr of fan blades spinning. Liv spotted one where a tiny paper rocket had been tied to the grate where it fluttered about like a mad butterfly, but aside from little things like that, and a truly horrendous accruement of clutter—discarded heaps of clothes tossed around without a care, unnamable gadgets and dissembled parts of gadgets, soda cans, and empty chip bags—the signs of personalization were sparse.

But what caught Liv’s attention was none of those things. She was used to much worse levels of slobbery, being a class-A slob herself, so, naturally, the mess was all but invisible to her well-conditioned eyes. And of course, not even Liv’s slobbishness could top her grandmother’s disaster of a house. That place was a safety hazard that could’ve ended up on a hoarders TV program, and it still featured as the stage for many of Liv’s worst nightmares. In comparison to any of _that_ , Seven’s mess was adorable.

What really captured Liv’s interest was the plexiglass view into the garage where a multitude of various sports cars were on display.

“You know,” she said to Zen in a faint voice, who was himself _speechless_ beside her as they peered passed the glass like kids at a candy store. “Maybe it’s just because I’ve never been this close to a sexy car before, but I’ve never understood guys’ fascination with them. Is it normal that I’m strangely turned on right now…?”

“I don’t know,” Zen said, shaking his head. “I’ve always been more turned on by motorcycles. Is that thing even a _car_?”

“I…I don’t have the words in Korean to express what I’m feeling right now.” There was a mixed-up squirmy feeling in her lower belly that she couldn’t quite identify right off the bat as she took in the sight of the sleek black vehicle. It was like _art_ on wheels.

“I think it’s a Lamborghini…” Zen said, voice strained. “Where in the hell did Seven get the money for _a Lamborghini_?! And is that a Porsche behind it??”

“Are you sure it’s not a Tesla? I’ve heard they’re really futuristic-looking.”

“No, that one’s definitely a Lambo! See the decal?” Zen pointed out.

“I don’t know much about cars,” Liv said when the feeling in her abdomen finally clicked in her mind. “But it looks like the Batmobile, and I think I want to lose my virginity in it.”

Zen made a choking noise beside her, raising a hand to cover a dropped jaw and flaming cheeks.

“Don’t…don’t say things like that so suddenly! It’s not good for my heart!” He shook his head at her. “You’ve _really_ got a thing for Batman, Liv…I’m almost jealous of a fictional character.”

“The lady has excellent taste!”

When they both whirled around, that feeling—the tingly, charged and vibrating one Liv only got when her life was about to take a drastic turn for better or worse— _assaulted_ her.

Smiling a dopy smile, in a pleasant voice, Liv said, “…My brain just exploded.”

Because there, sitting in a swivel chair, legs crossed, nonchalant as you please, was none other than the one called 707—

—in a fucking Batsuit.

“…Seven, what the hell.” It was a statement, not a question. Zen just sounded _tired_. “Are you seriously cosplaying _Batman_ right now?”

“How do you know Batman’s not the one cosplaying _me_?” Seven stood, kicking the swivel chair away and posing heroically. “BEHOLD! I AM THE HACKER DARK NIGHT OF JUSTICE!” He grinned. “I heard there was a damsel in distress, so I’m here to save the day!”

Zen covered his face, then covered Liv’s. “Liv, don’t watch.”

She tugged at his fingers. “But I—”

“ _No!_ ” Zen said in decisive English. “Get those stars out of your eyes right now.”

“But—”

“No buts!” he said, shuffling her behind him. “You stay there, and you—” he jabbed a finger at Seven, who clutched at his chest like he’d just been shot by it “—don’t talk to her.”

Liv stared at him aghast. “ _Zen!”_

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about you in our very short time together, it’s that you can’t be objective when Batman’s involved.” He winked at her. “I’m protecting you.”

“A rival approaches! Enter: Zen, the sparkly White Knight!” Seven made a wide gesture to the sparkly White Knight in question who rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Both heroes will step up to the challenge of rescuing the damsel, but who will win??” He cupped a secretive hand to his mouth and whispered across to Liv, “My money’s on the super dashing Defender of Justice!”

“Speaking of money,” Liv had to duck under the hand Zen tossed back towards the garage. “What the _hell_ , Seven? How did you manage to get a Lamborghini?? What exactly do you _do_ for a living?”

“He’s Batman,” Liv pointed out, trying to maneuver the conversation into safer waters. “His only superpower is being rich.”

“Right you are!” Seven latched onto the lifeline as flawlessly as Batman latches onto the line of a grappling gun. “There’s only nine of those in circulation, by the way. Don’t ask how much it cost—that’s a secret!”

“You’re kidding,” Liv gasped, staring back at the gorgeous and badass vehicle. “Only _nine_? In the whole world??”

“Yep!”

Zen gave her a dark frown. “You’re never getting in that car, Liv. Never.”

“ _Huh?”_ She gave him a devastated look. “But I wanted to get lai…” She trailed off when his look turned even more forbidding, and she sighed, rolling her eyes. “Is this what it’s like to have an overprotective dad? Zen, should I call you ‘ _Daddy_ ,’ now?”

“What?? N-n-no!” he choked out, waving his hands in front of him and making a consternated face that made Liv want to burst out laughing. Seven _did_ burst out laughing. “W-what did I say about you saying stuff that’s bad for my heart??”

She gave him a sheepish smile and a shrug. “Not to?” She leaned forward with a deliberate pout and whispered, “Sorry, Daddy… Are you going to punish me?”

“Liv, you’re _terrible_ …” Zen covered his bright red face.

“Ha! I win!” Liv rolled her fists in front of her. “I don’t know what I won, but I definitely won something. Can I collect my prize now?”

“Hahaha, I don’t know about a prize,” Seven approached and presented her with a gadget from his utility belt. “But I’ll trade you this in exchange for yours, pretty, pretty please!”

“Is that…a phone?” Liv examined the square shaped device with interest, a smile growing on her face when she saw the case was a white cat lounging across the earpiece, its long tail curling around the mic.

Zen made a disgusted noise. “Seven, did you make that for…”

“Yep, you guessed it! I was originally going to give it to Jumin!” he laughed, winking at Liv. “Isn’t Elly the cutest? You can borrow the Elly-phone while I’m analyzing the data from yours.”

“Oh my god…” Liv couldn’t wipe the grin off her face. “ _Elly_ -phone? That’s genius!”

He snickered as Zen groaned. “I thought so too…”

“But…” Liv thought, eyeing the phone. “I mean… I don’t have a problem with it. If you can find out how the RFA app got onto my phone, that’s great, but I have all my personal numbers and files on there… I don’t mind you going through it, but I kind of need it for work…”

“ _No problemo!”_ Seven gave her a thumbs up. “I can just make a clone of your OS and upload all your stuff onto the Elly-phone. Your cellular service should transfer over too, so people can still call you at your usual number.”

“Really?” Liv was impressed. “You can actually do that?”

“I am the Hacker Dark Knight of Justice!” he proclaimed once again. “I can do anything in the name of defending the RFA’s peace!”

Liv grinned, and dug out her phone. “Well, alrighty then. Sign me up.”

“Ah, well, the RFA is actually a closed group…”

“Oh, no, I meant for the fan club,” Liv laughed. “I’m converting over from Batman-ism to Hacker Dark Knight-ism.”

He gasped and held both hands to his cheeks. “Zen! Did you hear that?? I have a fan club!!”

“No, you don’t,” Zen denied in the next instant. “Liv, you’re _not_ joining this guy’s fan club. _Ever_. End of story.”

“The…end?” Liv blinked. “Is it really…”

.

.

.

~ _The End~_

.

.

.

“He’s just kidding!” Seven gave a grumpy Zen a good-natured slap on the back. “It’s too soon to end the story now! We just met!” He grinned at her. “It’s Liv, right?”

“That’s me!” Liv pointed a thumb at her chest. “I’m Zen’s annoying co-star.”

“You’re not annoying!” Zen assured her, then let out a wilting sigh. “Just extremely _alarming_ …”

Liv let out a wicked giggle. “And the understatement of the year award goes to…”

“You two just met today?” Seven asked, bright with interest.

“I already feel like I’ve known her for years…” Zen covered his eyes in exasperation.

“I’ve heard it can feel like years are going by when you’re being tortured, too,” Liv said with a cheerful smile, and Zen gave her a _look_ she was beginning to associate with him whenever she said or did something particularly ‘alarming.’

“Oh! I know what that is!” Seven slapped a fist into his hand in a eureka moment. “It’s like the theory of relativity when you cross over the event horizon of a supermassive black hole!”

Zen transferred the _look_ over to Seven. “How does that in _any way_ relate to what we were just talking about?”

Seven gestured behind him towards the room he’d rolled out of in his swivel chair in all his Batsuit-y glory.

“Step into my office. I can explain while we’re uploading Liv’s stuff onto the Elly-phone—this might take a while, ahahah…”

“If you can’t explain it in less than ten words, don’t bother,” Zen said, still grumpy at Seven.

“Time slows down the closer you get to a gravitational pull, right?” Liv thought back to her physics class she’d barely scraped a C in. Out of everything she learned back then, she found black holes to be the most fascinating. “Or at least it appears that way from someone watching from far away. To you, in the gravitational pull, it feels normal, but if you turned around, you’d see everything outside of the gravitational field is moving faster…”

One of Zen’s eyebrow’s twitched towards his hairline as he looked at her. “…Huh?”

“That’s right!” Seven gave her a delighted smile as she handed over the phones. He unfolded his caution striped glasses with a flick of his wrist and slipped them on over the Batman mask before spinning his swivel chair around to the keyboard. “Getting sucked into a supermassive black hole is on my top ten list of ways to die! Across the event horizon, you can watch the entire future of the universe unfold in front of your eyes before you get turned into atomic spaghetti!”

“Atomic…spaghetti…?” Zen looked completely lost.

“Yeah, atomic spaghetti is actually a thing,” Liv told him. “The technical term is actually ‘spaghettification,’ I think…”

“Zen! You found a brainy cutie!” Seven grinned at him as he plugged both phones into a computer hooked up to a wall full of monitors. “That’s rarer than the two percent chance of catching a Lugia in Pokemon GO.”

“Oh my _god_ …” Liv groaned. “Why did you have to say that? I was just starting to like you…”

Zen laughed the laugh of one who was finally getting retribution for wrongs committed.

“Oh, uh…did I say something wrong? Do you not like Pokémon? Or…” Seven raised both hands in his defense. “I wasn’t trying to disrespect women or anything! I’m not a womanizer or a misogynist—just an innocent little hacker, I swear! Please don’t hate me!”

“She’s just sulking because you called her ‘cute.’” Zen was all but cackling at this point while Liv glared at him in abject disapproval.

“Do you want me to hit you?” she grumbled at him.

“Not the face!” He leaned away from her with a teasing grin.

“Huh… I thought all cute girls liked being called cute?” Seven said, almost like he was talking to himself as he navigated through many windows on several different monitors. “Maybe Liv’s just weird?”

“I can live with weird.” She gave him a thumbs up. “Weird is more fun anyway.”

He looked at her, surprised at first, then he grinned. “I agree one hundred percent!” His grin turned foxish when he added, “We’ll tack on an extra twenty percent for cuteness.” He laughed when Liv groaned again. “So, how did a cutie like you end up getting mixed up in a situation like this?”

She and Zen exchanged a long look, and he said, “About that… We should probably call V.”

“Uh-oh. That sounds ominous…” He looked at them over his shoulder as he typed.

“Tell me about it…” Zen’s shoulders dropped into a sag. “It’s bad news. There’s a _cult_ after the RFA’s guest list information.”

Seven stopped typing.

“ _A cult??”_

“Yeah, that was my reaction too…” Zen sighed. “I’d be losing my mind over it if Liv wasn’t with me.” He tossed her a handsome smile. “Seeing you keep it together makes me want to keep it together in front of you too.”

“Oh, I’m totally losing my mind on the inside.” Liv grinned back. “Here’s a fun idea—why don’t we lose our minds together?”

“Sign me up too!” Seven said, adding, “Though I think I actually lost my last marble years ago…so it might not count.” He didn’t hesitate to hit a few more keys and bring up a window on the largest monitor. A phone on the screen began to ring. “Calling V now.” He shot Liv a look. “How are you involved in this again?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she said, voice flat.

“That weird, huh?”

“Before today, I thought you were all made up characters in a fictional reality,” she explained. “How’s that for ‘weird’?”

Never mind that they actually _were_ made up characters in a fictional reality mere hours ago. That was beyond the realm of disbelief though, so she edited it out. A more believable version of the truth is better sometimes…

“No wonder you acted so strange when we first met…” Zen said, tapping his chin with a thoughtful look. “I thought you were just dazzled by my good looks. That happens to people sometimes.”

“Well, there was a bit of that going on too…” Liv admitted with a shrug and a fond smile.

“I knew it!”

He winked at her.

Liv pretended to catch it and put it in her pocket.

“I’ll save that for a rainy day.”

He beamed like sunshine.

“You two are adorable,” Seven remarked, though he was more focused on the screen. “Come on, V… Now would be a really good time to pick up your damn phone for once…pick up…pick up… _pick uuup_ … Crud. Nope! Don’t care if it’s rude—I’m calling again!” The phone rang some more, and they all held their breath until, _finally_ , on the last ring, a beleaguered-looking man appeared on the screen. “Yahoo! I captured the Lugia!”

There he was, in all his elusive ‘mint-haired’ majesty. His hair was actually on the edge of looking overgrown, Liv noticed, though he managed to keep it just on the borderline between shabby and hipster chic. Just how he did that was a mystery. In fact, if Liv had to choose the biggest mystery in the Mystic Messenger game, it would probably be V’s hair. No one’s hair is that color. No one’s! It’s not natural! Especially for those of Korean nationality whose hair usually ends up somewhere between different shades of blacks and browns. Zen was clearly an albino, so his hair, Liv could understand. Seven’s hair was stretching it, but it was still within the realm of possibility…

But V, according to Mystic Messenger…

Like many things related to V, Liv got a headache just thinking about it.

“Luciel…?” V blinked at Seven in his Batman getup, opened his mouth, then closed it, deciding, perhaps wisely, not to ask. Next, he took in Zen to the left of Seven’s chair and his eyes widened. “Hyun? Are you at Luciel’s house…? And…” His eyes fell at last on Liv with a puzzled look.

“…Hi,” she said with an awkward wave. “I’m Liv.”

“Nice to…meet you?” Poor guy looked completely disarmed when they were about to drop a bombshell on him.

And it was all Liv’s fault.

She grimaced. “I wish it was under better circumstances.”

“V, this is my co-star in the movie I got a role in. Something weird happened today when we met,” Zen said. “We’ve got trouble.”

Liv’s half-cracked mind decided to chime in right at that moment with, ‘— _right here in River City! With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for—_ ’

She bowed her head, subtly digging her knuckles into her temple with frustration.

‘ _Now’s not the time for show tunes, brain_. _Focus!’_

“There’s a cult after the RFA guest list information,” Seven said. “V, did you know about this? Is that why you had me delete all that info?”

V was speechless, staring at them like they’d all spontaneously sprouted antlers before a pained look contorted his face.

“No way…V, you really knew, and you didn’t tell us about it?” Zen stared at him in disbelief. “We all knew you were keeping secrets, but…why would you hide something like this?!”

“I…didn’t want to alarm any of the members unnecessarily…” V hung his head, covering his eyes in shame. “I thought…if I could take care of it on my own, and keep everyone uninvolved… But, how did you…?” He looked up, his eyes falling once again on Liv.

“…Sorry,” She told him, feeling far beyond uncomfortable beneath his penetrating gaze. “I had to say something.”

“You…you’re not involved in that organization, are you?” V shook his head. “Did _she_ send you?”

“No!” She waved her hands wildly in front of her. “ _No_ , but…someone very important to…” She trailed off and was very glad Seven was looking at V, and not her, when she gave a subtle nod toward the redhead. V’s eyes widened in realization. “Um…I have a friend” —because god knows that boy needed a friend— "who’s trapped there. He’s being…tortured and used. I want to help him more than anything else, so I couldn’t just _not_ say something when I met Zen…” Liv’s face turned wretched as she conveyed, “V…things have gotten out of control. It’s…much worse than you can imagine over there right now. Especially for…my friend. _She’s_ harder on him than anyone else. He’s barely even the same person you knew anymore…” She shook her head. “She’s forcing this experimental drug on him that messes with his mind… You wouldn’t even recognize him if you saw him. I’m…” And here, Liv’s very real fear clawed its way into the light. “V, I’m afraid he might die…”

V looked completely beside himself with wretched misery.

“I…had _no idea_ things had gotten that bad,” he breathed out, running a hand over his face. “If what you’re saying is true… That child…I thought, even if…” He shook his head. “I thought he would be safe…no matter what.”

“V, you know about Ray, too?” Zen asked, giving Liv a wide-eyed look.

“That’s…the name he goes by now. You wouldn’t know, I guess, since it’s been a while since you’ve seen him…” Liv told V when he gave them a puzzled frown. She eyed Seven, who, while focused, appeared none the wiser to whom they were talking about. Liv…didn’t think it would be a good thing to reveal right now. “She’s using him as a hacker and a weapon against the RFA. She’s got him completely convinced you’re the enemy.”

Well, maybe not _completely_ …if he was willing to listen to Liv earlier. That gave her a smidgen of hope.

V cottoned on to this too.

“But you’ve talked to him?” He asked, sounding almost desperate. “You’re his friend?”

“I…suppose I am,” Liv muttered, mixed feelings swirling in her chest. “For lack of a better word, anyway… I got all my information on Mint-eye and the RFA from an app that presented itself as a game. When I was talking to Ray, I had no Idea I was talking to a real person.” She shrugged, still going with her abridged version of events. “I thought he was an AI, and he thought the same about me… Then, somehow, earlier today when I met Zen, my phone hacked the codes Ray stole from the RFA and downloaded the _real_ messenger app. And that’s as far as we know right now.”

“Hold up! Red-light! Red-light!” Seven typed madly at his keyboard, pulling up rows upon rows of green code. “ _No way!_ That little cockroach!”

“Don’t call him _that_ …” Liv gave him a pained look, feeling her heart sink. V had a similar look on his face. “He’s been coerced into this… It’s not his fault.”

Seven only gave her a twisted grin and said, “All hackers are cockroaches, Liv. No exceptions.”

“Please, don’t _say_ that,” she said again, her voice more forceful. “Ray is really a good person…”

“Tell that to my stolen source code! Haaaaah!” Seven sighed dramatically and held his head in his hands. “Can’t believe I didn’t even notice…” Just like that, he jerked back up and started typing again. “Who the hell _is_ this guy? He’s subtle, but _skilled_ —damn! I can’t even—” He broke off into a stream of rapid and unintelligible Korean that Liv just couldn’t keep up with.

When she sent a look at Zen for insight, he only shrugged and shook his head at her.

“Luciel…” V said, voice quiet and eyes sad. “I don’t want you engaging directly with this hacker.”

“What??” Seven’s head jerked around to the monitor V was on. “But, V, it’s my job to protect the RFA from cyber threats just like—"

“The situation is extremely delicate,” he explained, face grave. “Like Liv said…Ray’s life could be on the line.”

There was a slow release of tension in Seven’s shoulders as he let his hands fall from the keyboard into his lap. Finally, he sighed, and said, “…Yeah. I guess I know what that’s like.” He reached up and took off the Batman mask beneath his glasses, revealing a shock of unruly red hair underneath, which he ruffled his fingers through in frustration. “But, V… We can’t just lay down and let this guy attack the messenger. It’s the only place the RFA can get together and chat now…”

Liv felt her heart squeeze at the thought of the RFA messenger being the only place Seven could really have a sense of family. Losing that would be sad for the others too…but it would be _devastating_ to someone like him.

“I’m…sure it’ll be okay if we just focus on defense, for now, right?” Liv suggested, switching her gaze between V on the monitor and Seven in his chair. “The best offense is a good defense…?”

“That…is a good way to stall for time. But we’ll need something more than that…” V said, making a thoughtful face. “I’m sure it will be difficult for you Luciel without launching a counterattack as a deterrent. And when Sa-I mean- _Ray_ is prevented from accomplishing his task, it will be hard on him too…” He closed his eyes and sighed. “Luciel, you may have to give strategic ground to keep him safe until we find a way to get him out of there…”

“Alright!” Seven nodded with a determined smirk. “We’ll smuggle the little cockroach out then bombard the place with pesticide! This Mint-eye place is going down!”

“Would you _stop_ calling Ray a cockroach!?” Liv despaired, tugging on her short hair. “We’re trying to go for a peaceful solution to this!”

“Yes…” V agreed with a solemn nod. “Ideally, I want to find a way to make peace with them.”

“How do you make peace with a fanatical cult?” Zen stressed the point.

Liv sighed. “You’ve…got a point. Their leader has gone total dark side. I mean, she’s coo-coo for cocoa puffs, nuts, cray-cray, bonkers.” At V’s pained look Liv’s face darkened and she added, “She won’t be satisfied until she drags everyone down with her, V… So, don’t be getting any stupid ideas about sacrificing yourself because it won’t work.” At his incredulous expression, Liv continued. “Think about it. What happens if you feed yourself to her on a silver platter? She’ll eat you up until you’re bones, but what good will your bones do for anyone when she decides it’s not enough? And it won’t be enough. It’s never enough for people like her. I _know_ people like her—she’s not special, I’ve seen it plenty of times—so I can promise you that.” She let the silence propagate for a moment before asking, “What happens when the only person standing between her and the RFA is gone?”

“Whoa, that’s— _Liv!_ Where are you getting all these weird assumptions about V from? You don’t even know him!” Zen turned to her, bewildered. Even Seven was giving her a weird look. “And who is this woman? Are you talking about the cult leader?”

“They’re _not_ assumptions, they’re facts,” Liv said, grim faced, stealing a glance at V, who sported an unreadable expression. “As for the cult leader…she’s someone you’re better off not knowing or having anything to do with. I’m sorry, V, but I just can’t have any sympathy for her—not after what she did to Ray.” She sent him a sharp look. “A peaceful solution would be great…but you need to get your priorities straightened out, or we can’t rely on you.”

“Liv!” Zen scolded her. “That’s really going too far!”

“No…” V shook his head, looking even more miserable. “She’s…right. About everything. I…didn’t think about what would happen…after…” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I need to get my thoughts in order. Priorities… Liv,” He looked at her with unsettled eyes. “I’m not sure what you know, or how you saw through me so easily, but…I’d like to continue this discussion later in private, if that’s alright.”

“That might be for the best…” she agreed with a frown. “Seven is analyzing the app data on my phone, so he can send you my number.”

“This whole conversation stinks like secrets,” the redhead remarked, eyeing Liv from over his shoulder. “What exactly did you find out on that game app you mentioned?”

“More than I’m comfortable knowing about…” Liv admitted, sending an apologetic look at V. “Don’t worry though…I don’t spill secrets that aren’t mine to share.” She amended, “Unless keeping them puts people in danger…”

“You seem like a person with good intentions… That’s a relief.” V went for a half-hearted smile, but mostly failed. “I look forward to learning more about you, and I hope that you’ll continue to be a friend to Ray as the RFA works through these difficulties…” To Seven he said, “I’ll try to log into the messenger more often. You’ll keep me updated on any developments, Luciel?”

“Don’t I always?” Though his smile was cheery, Seven’s eyes were distracted. “To be honest, Liv, I’m really curious about this game app…”

“Curiosity killed the cat…” she muttered, noting the troubled look on V’s face. “I mean, it seems like it got deleted when the RFA messenger was installed. But if you can somehow find it on there, I guess I can’t stop you from cracking it open. Just…be prepared for what you might find.”

He gave her a ridiculous grin. “707 is always ready!”

For some reason—maybe it was because the tension was wound up too tight, or maybe she’d just watched one too many episodes of the Office—but that statement entered Liv’s brain wrong and she couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“ _That’s what she said_. _”_

Seven covered his mouth in a dramatic gasp and said in perfect English, “ _The lady has her mind in the gutter!”_

“ _This lady’s mind was_ born _in the gutter_ ,” she returned, still laughing.

“What are you two talking about? I want to know!” Zen let out a frustrated huff.

“You’re too young to know,” Seven told him with a jaunty grin.

“I’m older than you!” he protested. “Tell me!”

“Why don’t you learn English if you want to know so much?”

“Maybe I will!”

This time, V’s smile seemed to reach his eyes when he said, “I’m glad you’re all getting along, at least. Zen, I wish you luck in learning English. I had difficulty learning it myself, but it will help you if you ever intend to travel and take on roles internationally.”

“I…didn’t even think of that.” Zen ran a hand through his bangs as the possibilities presented themselves. Then he looked at Liv. “That’s what you did, right, Liv? I still think it was really brave of you to leave your home and come all this way. It’s hard to even picture myself on an international stage…”

“You could totally do it, Zen! It’s actually easier to learn Korean since I got here and became surrounded by the language. If I can do it, you definitely can too—I’ll help you!” Liv leaned over and gave his arm an excitable hug. “I’d _love_ to see you perform on Broadway in New York City! My grandfather owned a penthouse there, and he’d take me to see the shows with him whenever I got to visit.” She gave his arm a few eager tugs, almost knocking him off balance in her enthusiasm. “We should go sometime too! I want to see Phantom of the Opera again! Last time my cousin came with us, and he was a complete _buzzkill_. I wanted to shove his head up his ass by the end of the performance, because he kept laughing at the actors during the serious parts and _yawning_ during the exciting parts—can you _believe_ that asshole?”

When she stopped to take a breath, she noticed Seven was snickering at her, and Zen’s cheeks were bright pink.

“Sorry!” she said snatching her hands away and clasping them behind her back for good measure. “I got a little too excited there picturing you up on stage…”

“I’d love to see a Broadway show with you someday, Liv,” Zen told her, cheeks still pink, but his smile sincere as ever. Then he frowned. “As long as it’s not CATS.”

Liv tried to cover up her laugh but ended up snorting into her hand. “Now we _have_ to see it. Just because you said that.”

“I’ll be sneezing throughout the entire performance—it’ll be worse than your douche cousin!”

“I’ll go see CATS with you, Liv!” Seven offered.

“We can all go!” Liv laughed, looking at where V was smiling at them from the monitor screen. “V, you’re also invited. And after this is over, Ray can come too.”

“I hope that day will come soon…” he said, nodding to her. “Liv, Hyun, I wish you all the best on your movie production. Luciel…”

“I know, I know.” Seven waved him off. “I’ll keep you updated. You do the same.”

“I’ll try my best to keep in touch,” he agreed. “Liv, I’ll call you later.”

Liv couldn’t say she was looking forward to that conversation if it was anything like the one they’d just had, but she nodded back, just as well.

“Bye, V.”

“Take care…”

With that, V’s image disappeared from the monitor.

And, as expected with anything having to do with V…Liv had a headache.

.

.

.

**VNM: Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with RATS. Rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once…**

**9 YEARS AGO**

“How are things going?” her mom asked, sitting on the bench beside her.

The garden was beautiful, full of bright, fragrant blossoms, and a burbling fountain at the center. But even though Liv enjoyed her time out among the flowers—her favorites were sweet jasmine, even if she was never allowed out at night to watch them bloom—though she savored the breeze upon her face and the rays of the sun on her skin, she had never been interested in gardening; not like some of the other patients at the facility. A group of them would sometimes be allowed to tend to the garden—under strict supervision, of course. It wouldn’t do to have one of them go berserk with a spade in their hand and brain someone with it…or God knows what else.

“It’s…” Liv looked away from the fountain to focus on her mom’s skirt covered knees. It was business chic, so she guessed she must have just got off work. She still couldn’t look the woman in the eye. “Better. Things are better.” She wrung her hands in her lap, fascinated by the way the broken skin around her knuckles bunched up when she twisted her fingers just right. “They’re letting me help out in the kitchen now, since I’ve been on good behavior. I’ve been getting pretty good at cooking.”

When she worked up the nerve to peek, she saw her mom’s lips curl into a smile.

“That’s a relief. I always thought you might accidentally poison someone one day.”

“ _Hey_.” Liv brightened at her mom’s teasing. If she was teasing her, then that meant she wasn’t angry. “I wasn’t that bad at it. Remember when we used to make snickerdoodles together? Those were the _best_.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“They _were_!”

“Okay, I’ll admit they were pretty good. You’ve always had a sweet tooth.” She chuckled at Liv, shaking her head in fondness. “You can’t make dinner to save your life, but you’ve always made wonderful desserts. I wonder why that is…?” She gave her a dry look.

Liv gave her a sheepish shrug in return, and offered, “I’m getting better at cooking regular meals now. Little by little. Every day I’m a little bit better…”

Her mom smiled again, and said with complete sincerity, “I’m glad.” She paused then, asking, “And you’re doing okay? On the medications, I mean? No complications?”

“Not that I’ve noticed.” Liv shook her head. “It sucked at first. My hair kept falling out, and that was driving me crazy…er.” Her mom gave her an alarmed look, and Liv elaborated, “They’re still working on getting the right cocktail of drugs in me. I threw up a lot…” When her mom began to look even more alarmed, Liv waved her hands. “Oh, no, it wasn’t on purpose this time! I swear! The doctor said it was normal to feel nauseous after…but I’ve been taking my medicine, just like they tell me to.” She let out a long sigh. “And now I have to take a bunch of heavy-duty vitamins for the rest of my life too…”

“Well, that’s not a bad thing,” her mom pointed out. “I should probably get the rest of us to start taking vitamins as well—this family could stand to be a little healthier. What all are you taking?”

Liv sighed again.

“It’s a lot, so it’s going to be expensive to get them for everyone… There’s calcium, iron, and then there’s magnesium, B12, and a multivitamin on top of that…”

She twisted her fingers into the ends her waist length hair, tugging on it nervously. It was disheveled and tangled from all the nervous fussing she’d been doing lately.

The thought of spending money made her feel anxious these days.

Her mom reached over and stopped her from pulling out even more of her hair.

“If it’s to keep you healthy, I’m sure we’ll figure something out,” she said, gently patting her hand, and Liv dared to glance into her teal-blue eyes with hope. “Other than that, how is everything else? You’re still so thin…” Her mouth formed a soft frown. “Are you getting enough to eat?”

“Yeah.” Liv nodded, glancing away again. “All healthy stuff—lots of fruits, veggies, and protein. It’s good, but you know, it’s weird.” She smiled down at her lap with a laugh. “For some reason, my sense of smell has gotten super sharp, like a bloodhound, and when something smells even the slightest bit off, I can’t eat it because it makes me feel sick. My tastes have changed too. Like, I can tell if something is _organic_ or not. It’s crazy. I was never a picky eater before… Do you think I’ve developed a superpower?”

“So, I guess that means no more McDonald’s, huh?” her mom said with a wry twist of her lips.

Liv made a sour face. “ _Blegh_ …”

Her mom laughed and tried, “What about that Thai place you like? Sushi?”

Liv moaned, and said, “I can’t have that much rice anymore— _grains_. They’re _terrible_.” She gasped and said, “Did I ever tell you the story of the pet pig who died?”

“No, Oliva,” her mom said with saintly patience. “You never told me the story of the pet pig who died.”

“Okay, so, there was this family who had a pet pig,” Liv told her, deadly serious.

“Naturally,” her mom said. “Go on. This is getting good.”

“Okay, so, the family went out one day, and the pet pig got into the pantry and found a bag of uncooked rice…and ate the _whole thing_ ,” Liv explained, gesturing with her hands for emphasis. “And when the family came back, they found the pig dead with its belly all bloated up, because the rice _cooked inside its stomach and split it open from the inside_.”

Her mom stared at her with raised brows.

“That got dark fast.”

“It’s me,” Liv said with a shrug. “What do you expect? The point I was trying to make is that grains are _scary_.”

“So, Sushi is a ‘no’ then…” her mom said thoughtfully.

Liv made a pained face. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but it’s not like there’s a point to having this conversation when I’m _stuck here_.”

A silence descended between them, and Liv sat there with her mom, watching another family bicker amongst themselves on the other side of the fountain, disturbing the peace in garden. Visiting day was always like this, though it was one of Liv’s better ones, she thought. She was lucid, relatively calm and not flying into a fit of rage at the slightest provocation, and…out of her usual medicated fog. Today was a good day. And as she sat there with tears gathering in her eyes, all she knew was that she didn’t want to fuck it up. Like she’d done with nearly everything else…

She could swallow her pride enough to admit that.

“I…understand why I’m here,” she said to her lap, feeling the hot tears of shame breach and roll silently down her cheeks. “Detective Clayton came to visit, and…he showed me the pictures.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I…I deserve to be stuck here. And I’m really happy you came to visit me…because that’s _more_ than I deserve.”

“Livy…” Her mom sighed and reached over to take one of the hands Liv was inching towards the bandages on her neck. “Life isn’t always about getting what you think you deserve.” When Liv gave her an uncertain glance, she only shook her head. “You did a terrible thing. Yes. But if you deserve to be stuck here for it, then I deserve to be punished too, along with your teachers, and your classmates—for _failing_ you when you needed our help and support the most. But the tragedy of life is that sometimes…” She squeezed Liv’s hand, and Liv was astonished to see tears gleaming in her mom’s eyes as well. “Sometimes the world just doesn’t care about what we need, or what we deserve… Because the world doesn’t owe us anything.”

“…I don’t know what that means,” Liv admitted in a small voice, thoughts grasping in vain for fleeting threads of understanding.

Liv’s mom gave her hand another squeeze.

“One day, you will.” And she reached out with her thumb to wipe Liv’s tears away, just like she used to when she was little. “Having said that, I actually came here with good news, you know.”

Liv looked up slowly, fighting off the impending return of her medicated fog. “…News?”

But then her mom said something that pierced the incoming clouds like the beaming sunshine.

“You’re going to be a big sister!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Gisanim_ : Respectful title for a taxi driver in Korea.
> 
> Ugh...this chapter was difficult T-T Somebody save me from this fandom.
> 
> I wanted to get all of Day 1 taken care of in three chapters, but it looks like that's not going to happen. This pacing should eventually speed up and include more action-y and suspense-y bits, so I hope you'll all bear with it until then! There's just a lot of info to shove into these first chapters, and I'm trying to do it as gracefully as possible. You'll notice the inclusion of the VNM — which isn't so much a virtual novel as it is an _actual_ part of this novel lololol. Those will pop up from time to time for various characters, not just Liv, so you get more than one point of view. You're welcome? Maybe?
> 
> As promised, here you have Seven and V. I hope I managed to do them justice—especially everyone's favorite Defender of Justice. Please let me know what you think, because I'm driving myself crazy over these two... If anyone wants to see Seven's "Batmobile" look up the Lamborghini Veneno Roadster. You may need a new pair of panties afterwards, but it will be worth it.
> 
> Oh, and has anyone else seen the MysMe anniversary chats about COVID? In this story...please just pretend like those chats never happened T-T I was using it for plot purposes, and then Cheritz had to go and pop my plot bubble. (Try saying that six times fast).


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